


The sea that we saw was a desert of snowfall

by ADyingFlower



Series: Ardynoct Week [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Defying Fate, Fix-It, Genderqueer Character, Hive Mind, Hopeful Ending, King!Luna, Multi, Oracle!Gentiana, Pre-Canon, Prophecy, Shiva!Noctis, Since Shiva is revered as a female but 'Noctis' is not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-01
Updated: 2017-10-01
Packaged: 2019-01-07 23:05:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12242391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ADyingFlower/pseuds/ADyingFlower
Summary: Day 1: MythologyShiva is the Glacian, one of the six astrals sworn to protect Eos. Noctis is the name Shiva took on almost several centuries ago. Noctis is also still very put up with the rest of Eos and all of this prophecy business when all he wants to do is play around, but still gets drawn in anyhow because he can't stand blood prices and is maybe too fond of the Accursed for what an astral really should be.Or; Noctis is the Glacian, Luna is the king of light, and Gentiana is the oracle. Or Noctis just wants to save his beloveds and accidentally stop centuries worth of Bahamut's planning in the process.





	The sea that we saw was a desert of snowfall

**Author's Note:**

> This was actually written _well_ before Ardynoct week was even created, but sadly, I had to abandon it in need for more pressing projects. With the newest update and my love for Ardynoct, I finally polished the edges of this off and decided to update it.
> 
> Song title is from children of the frost

Noctis was contently eating his fill of meat skewer and debating whether food was humanity’s greatest achievement in the sweltering heat of Lestallum when Bahamut decided it would be a grand idea to burst into his head with all the grace of throwing one of his ultima swords.

“Can you maybe not?” He asked almost rhetorically, rubbing his forehead and ignoring the strange looks he was getting. Ducking into the nearest alley, he let himself become just slightly incorporeal so as to ward off any one too curious (or noisy).

“ _I have no recollection of what you mean_.” Bahamut flatly replied, knowing full well that Noctis did not appreciate it one bit when the fellow astral decided to crash the party, so to say. “ _I would not visit the mortal realm but for one reason. The chosen king has been born."_

 _That_ drew Noctis to a stop. “Wait. You still want to go through with this ridiculous plan of yours?”

“ _To heal the starscourge-_ ” Noctis interrupted him. “Yes, let’s raise a lamb to slaughter for the good of everyone instead of, you know, coming up with a plan to make Ifrit-”

“ _Hold your tongue, Shiva._ ” He immediately bit down on his cheek, the faint taste of blood helping him to stop from snapping back. Bahamut was the only one of the six (well,  _technically_ five now) who refused to call him by whatever human guise he had chose for a couple of centuries. It’s been Noctis ever since at least the 89th king of Lucis, geez. “ _I have already agreed to your terms for safeguarding the Oracle and The Chosen King, that should be sufficient enough."_

Oh yeah, that. The reminder let him know to send out a feeler or two, and peer through the eyes of one of his numerous vessels to check on the Oracle, who was now edging past the toddler years and into early childhood, but the ever calm child was content with reading it seems. Gentiana appeared fine, so he switched back to his main body. He much prefered this face, the one he’s been practically cultivating before the line of Lucis was even established, but only perfected a couple of centuries ago. Though it was nice sometimes to switch between a couple of other vessels, just to get the crick out of his neck for this one. Human bodies, such a pain to upkeep.

“Have you given your blessings yet? You must have to come up with some cover story on why there’s a never aging servant only loyal to a child, after all.” Noctis’s own story wasn’t necessarily false, per se, as the other astrals kept their noses out of humans business and left him, who was apparently “fond” of them, to keep an eye on the happenings of the world and report on the any strange occurrences. He didn’t know about the ‘fond of humans’ part, but he was pretty partial to their food if he had to admit.

 _“That will not be necessary. I will keep watch on the chosen king as she grows through the crystal._ ” There were so many things wrong with that statement, so Noctis just sighed and let his corporeal body completely fade, not without casting one last mournful glance at the meat skewer he wouldn’t be able to bring with him.

When he blinked, Bahamut was standing in front of him in the astral realm and he was back in his more...not human form. Which was more than what the others could say. At least he wasn’t a giant fish. Take _that_ Leviathan.

“She?” He asked, sitting with his knees tucked under him and legs to the side in Bahamut’s hand, giving the glove a kind pat as thanks and wincing when frost spread at the touch of his bare hands. There was a reason in his human forms he dressed like he was expecting a snowstorm all the time after all, despite it being quite literally his element. Bahamut didn’t seem to mind, and the draconian only tilting his head in acknowledgement.

“The Chosen King is born as a Princess, yes.” Bahamut agreed, nodding his head slowly and bringing his hand closer to peer at him. “They have named her Lunafreya, one blessed by the light of the moon.”

Noctis tapped his chin thoughtfully. This changed things quite a bit, but not as much as to hopefully persuade the leader of the astrals against this ridiculous plan of his. Blood prices were just something Noctis couldn’t stand, no matter if it were the very Accursed himself making them. He could stand the crystal, he could stand the Ring of the Lucii, but blood prices?

Without even thinking about, he began building another face, one good enough and trustworthy looking for him to use for the upcoming days.

“Will the crystal be enough?” He asked, reaching out with both hands to cup the metal of Bahamut’s armor around his chin. His human sized hands only managed to spread more frost and ice, but no gods would be affected by something as petty as that. “What if something were to cut off the chosen’s life even before arising to the throne to receive our blessings? Then what, we must wait for thousands of more years before enough power is accumulated to wipe away the starscourge, while Ifrit only gains in power?”

Bahamut paused, and Noctis wondered for the briefest moment if he had gone too far and he really would not have-

“Do not forget Shiva,” Bahamut rumbled, and Noctis almost sighed in relief if such a thing wasn’t so suppressed when he was in his astral form. “That the Betrayer started this in part, due to you.”

Noctis dropped his hands to his lap, bowing his head slightly in mock acceptance. “Do not think I do not remember the burden, Draconian. I will do my best in the upcoming days to prepare for the Chosen King’s ascension to the throne, as well as the Oracle who will guide her forevermore.”

“Likewise, Glacian. Let our brethren be awakened and help us with the sacrifices of the crystal purge the Betrayer’s poisonous love from Eos.” Bahamut open his partially closed fist and let him gladly fall out into the providence, his body disappearing back into the mortal realm.

He had children to see, after all.

 

The Accursed was watching the Chosen King from his perch on the nearby rooftop, the daemons under his skin practically revolting as Noctis touched down gently next to him with his wings floating down gracefully behind him, but he kept his eyes firmly fixed on the babbling toddler as she played with her toys in her nursery. A watchful glaive was keeping eye on the ledge outside the window, Noctis has heard from one of his vessels that an assassination attempt on the young princess by the empire over the seas had already been made earlier this week. Highly impressive, considering the child isn’t even three weeks, he believes. Time, what a fickle thing. So easy to lose.

“Long have I awaited this day.” The Accursed murmured softly, and Noctis laid a frozen hand on the nape of his neck. The Accursed did not flinch even as his skin began to blacken with frostbite at his touch. Noctis did not expect him too. “You are too kind, Shiva.”

He wasn’t kind at all.

“You needn’t worry. I shall not harm a mere babe.” The Accursed assured him, though it wasn’t a particularly strong reassurance.

“And when the child grows?” He hummed, kneading his neck.The shadows darted away under his touch; he has exterminated too much of their kin, is too bright for them to stand.

The Accursed did not reply, so Noctis tightened his grip and jerked his head back, staring at him with swirling violet eyes from above him. “I asked you a question. Do not test my ire.”

He got an eyebrow raised, but the Accursed finally replied. “You have my thanks and affection for healing me as you’ve done and kept me sane, but my wish for the Lucis line still has not changed and will not, no matter how much your pretty face sways me.”

Noctis pinched his eyebrows together angrily, but obediently released the Accursed and went back to watching the chosen king. Finally, he let out a little secret he was trusted with by the other astrals, but Noctis was always a bit too fond of the Accursed and his kin to let it go unsaid.

“Bahamut seeks your demise.” He admitted, ice crackling under his feet as he took a step closer to the edge. “And the other are inclined to agree with him. Your tampering of daemons have not gone unnoticed, precious one.”

Something relaxed in the Accursed shoulders at the sound of the nickname Noctis granted him when he was just a babe, that generation he was born into a particularly obvious of their worship of him, which just fed into his power. As much as the other astrals would refuse to admit it (perhaps maybe Ramuh), they were, in part, dependent on the survival of humanity.

Life would be oh so boring without little humans and their drama, after all.

“It’s all for the better of the empire,” The Accursed mocked, standing up at last to meet him at the edge of the rooftop, one hand moving to the small of his back. Noctis cast him an amused look, faintly hearing the sounds of the Accursed hand being burned under his deadly chill. “Anything for you, my dear.”

Noctis let out an undignified snort, latching onto his burnt hand by the wrist and removing it from his person, letting his chill provide a momentary relief against the daemons inside him. “Whatever you do, I suggest you stop, and soon. The other astrals are not pleased with you, and there are plenty of other ways to punish an immortal than you seem to think.”

“Like what you did to Ifrit?”

The words barely passed the Accursed lips before Noctis whirled around and had a hand around his neck, lifting him in the air with ease above the road below them. The Accursed smirked at him, as the threat was useless against him, but Noctis had other things in mind for the punishment of letting his once beloved's name past his lips.

“Do not make me forcibly purify you.” That got a jolt of fear out of the man, and Noctis was the one this time to raise an eyebrow cockily. “You are my precious one, this I will admit, but do not mistake my fondness for stupidity, _Ardyn_. I will not stand for anyone, even you, to speak of the Betrayers name in my presence. Understood?”

The Accursed nodded his head, as his lungs were likely out of the air required to speak by this point, so Noctis set him down none too gently on the ground. He didn’t give time for the Accursed to reply or even smirk, only bended his knee on the edge and jumped, letting his wings flared out behind him as he spun into the night sky. Vaguely, he could hear the Accursed saying-

“You are the most beautiful when you’re grieving.”

-But it wasn’t worth his time to dwell on it. Years run by so quick, after all.

 

Lunafreya - though she much prefered Luna, her birth name was such a mouthful - was out playing in her mother’s private garden when she saw the strange boy by the sylleblossoms her mother planted when she moved from Tenebrae to Lucis, the very same ones she claimed were what made the crowns of their royalty.

Mother doesn’t wear many flowers crowns as of late.

“Hello?” She called tentatively, peeking out behind a bush to where she thought she saw a small boy playing with a ball. Her hands tensed nervously around the edges of her red notebook as she peeked around and saw no one.

“Boo!”

She almost screamed, only years of etiquette lessons stopping her from hitting whoever it was behind her and running for the hills. Luna whirled around, pinning whoever it was behind her with a glare and the book held protectively in front of her.

“I’m not afraid to use this!” Her voice warbled at the declaration, but the boy didn’t seem to notice it as he stared in surprise down at her book.

“That’s so pretty!” Well, she wasn’t expecting that. “Can I see?”

The boy looked around her age, probably a bit younger than her with hair like a crown of dark feathers and strange eyes that belied nothing but curiosity but sent something strange down her spine. Fear?

No, but something close to it she guessed. Like the air in those haunted houses she read about in books but her mother forbade her from actually entering. It was..quiet.

But Luna was seven years old and desperate for a friend, so she shyly held out her delicately stylized notebook to the boy who didn’t even come up to her shoulders dressed in such a casual way it was almost a sight for sore eyes.

“Wow…” The boy trailed off as he opened her book where only the first page was filled in, a delicate sylleblossom pressed to the page, the first one of the season. “Is there anything else?”

Luna hesitated, but crouched down slightly so they were eye level. “Not yet...I had planned for it to be a exchange diary, of sorts?”

The boy tilted his head. “An exchange diary?”

She smiled at him, and she began to explain what it was in a careful and measured voice, the boy attentive listening filling her with some unknown emotion that brought a smile on her face and made her fingers twitch. Ignis never explained this emotion to her, despite her firm belief that her advisor knew practically everything.

“That sounds like fun,” The boy giggled, latching onto her free hand with his excitement. “We should do one ourselves, just between me and you.”

Luna nodded eagerly. She had...she had a friend?

“Oh,” She blurted out, once she realized something. “I never got your name! I’m so sorry-”

“It’s fine.” The boy waved it off, staring up at her with a smile. “My name’s Noctis. And yours?”

The boy - Noctis - didn’t know her name? That was...rare.

“You can call me Luna. Want to...play for a bit?”

It was only hours afterwards, when her handmaidens came to scold her for missing her lessons and a worried mother at their heels, did Luna realize that she had no idea where Noctis came from.

 

The Chosen King was a bit...strange. Maybe it’s because he was expecting someone more refined, someone more... _regal_ . But the Chosen King was still only a child, and it only deepened his convictions on changing fate. Oh Eos, Bahamut would have his _head_ if something went wrong, immortality or not.

As it was, he could hear the Chosen King asking her advisor about the little boy he had recently created to be her playmate. He wiped down the floors with mock determination, perfectly in place to keep an eye on the Chosen King.

If only she knew just how _many_ forms he expended keeping an eye on her. He’s never been this magically drained since The Great War of the Old. At this rate, he would have to subtract a couple of his spies and even some of his personal ones he swapped in when day’s were just dragging to have some fun.

“I met a friend!” She declared cheerfully, and even without seeing them he could feel the advisors curiosity and paranoia.

“Oh really?” The advisor asked, the sound of rustling paper as he continued tidying up his desk area during their break from schooling. “What’s their name?”

The Chosen King laughed, sounding so terribly young and carefree. “Noctis! I found him playing ball in mother’s garden, and we played for a while before Mother found out and I got scolded for skipping my lessons.”

“So that’s where you were yesterday.” The advisor humored her, which was a relief on his part. “Perhaps he’s the gardener's son?”

The Chosen King hummed, the sound of her pen scratching at the parchment irritating his ears. “Maybe. He didn’t know my name, so - maybe he’s someone from outside!”

Eos. Well at least that's one way to make the advisor even more paranoid than Noctis thought possible. Over the frantic reassurances of the Chosen King and the smell of fear tainting the room something ugly, Noctis switched out of this body and let it continue its work, and into the one he created to stand by the Oracle's side.

Gentiana was reading another novel when he popped in, not looking surprised in the least at his entrance from nowhere. Sometimes, he wondered if the Oracle was better suited for being an astral than he was, which was a stupid thought if he ever heard one.

He stepped closer, planting a careful hand on the back of the divan and leaned closer to the child, finally making her look up and her long black hair slide over her shoulders. 

“Your mother fares well?” He asked, his voice softer than he would have liked. He modeled this  certain vessel after a Lucis prince from years past, and it showed whenever he opened his mouth and used the damn vocal cords. Many of his vessels were modeled after the prince forgotten in history after he fled the burning city with his younger siblings in tow due to a jealous uncle who wanted the crystal for his own, their father a doomed man facing the inevitable.

Maybe he loved that forgotten prince. Who knows.

“She does. I assume there is a reason you would wish to stand beside me now?” Gentiana bowed her head slightly, and Noctis felt a rush of affection for the small child who acted so much bigger than she was.

“The Chosen King has been born, this you know?” Gentiana nodded her head again, already informed of her role in the upcoming days by Bahamut. Eos, she was just a babe they were involving in their petty wars. “I wish for you to take care of her when she comes to Tenebrae in due time. Do not treat her as the Chosen King, but as a friend.”

Slowly, Gentiana opened her eyes to stare up at Noctis, forgoing her preference to be blind in the face of evil to figuring out the strange request. “What have you got in the works, Shiva?”

Noctis leaned forward until his face hovered mere inches from the child’s. “I wish to change the wheels of fate, my dear. No mortals deserves to die for the gods mistake, this I can promise you.”

He pushed back, admiring the room in idleness when an actuality he wanted to give the child time to digest the information he just provided her. The dogs at resting at Gentiana’s feet perked their heads up at him, and he gave them a soft smile.

“That reminds me, do me another favor.” Noctis drawled, another plan spinning in his mind even as he could feel the Chosen King playing with his playmate vessel in a region of his expansive mind. “Let me keep Pryna for a bit. I have need of a messenger for just a little while.”

 

_HE WAS GONE FOR A FUCKING MONTH-_

Noctis took a deep breath, and then another when there seemed to be no effect to calming the rage surfacing in his chest. The Chosen King was bedridden in front of him, her eyes moving under her eyelids as she fought against the nightmares keeping her asleep. Her father should be back any minute to mourn by her bedside, but until then Noctis had time to give a single gift to help pull the Chosen King out of her sleep.

“Sleep well, Princess.” He murmured, dropping the charm against her pillow. Carbuncle glowed briefly, and the Chosen King slept, but a more natural one this time, as Carbuncle worked his magic inside her dream worlds.

He was going to murder somebody. Preferably the daemon who did this, but he’s pretty sure they’re already dead, so he’s going to go have a field day with the ones outside the borders if that’s what it takes. It’s been a millennia since Shiva had to vent, but when she had to vent, _she had to vent_.

Pyrna butted into his shins as he walked away in the gap, and he only smiled down at her, a tad disappointed with how things turned out. “Well there goes that plan for making the Chosen King some friends. No way is that King going to let her out of his sight now.”

He sighed, well worn with exhaustion. Trying to save the world was much more exhausting then she assumed it to be, especially trying to do it under Bahamut’s nose. He couldn’t change too much and make Bahamut catch on too early, but couldn’t change too little and make too little difference.

Leaning down, he brushed his lips against her forehead with a small smile, fondness swelling in his heart when she made a face at his coldness and cringed away.

Still…perhaps all hope wasn’t lost yet. He hadn’t done much yet, but he had made some waves, even if they were only slight. He just needed a little more time, time to figure out how to acquire the power of all six astrals with the one hundred and thirteen bloodline members that were descended from the goddess of them all.

But if there was one thing Noctis - _Shiva_ \- was good at, it was his ability to always be counted as ‘fond’ of mortals and his love for the two people the rest of the astrals damned.

Lunafreya. Ifrit. Ardyn.

His beloveds. If it was the last thing he could do, he would save them.  



End file.
